Literary Analysis of "everyday Use"

Literary Analysis of “Everyday Use”

In Alice Walker’s 1973 short story “Everyday Use,” Walker demonstrates contrasting perspectives about family heritage through an African American family and the conflict that results from these different views. The story takes place during the civil rights movement in the United States when many black Americans were fighting for equality and striving to put an end to the racial injustices they faced. Many black Americans turned to their African roots to express racial pride, and ultimately turned their backs on the American heritage they felt was filled with discrimination and oppression. While many black Americans fought for their rights to be fully free from prejudices, there were others that accepted the established traditions and embraced their American roots. Walker depicts a family living in the rural south that has conflicted views of these new ideas and the traditional African American views of this time. The family consists of a mother and her two daughters. The mother is a hardworking woman with little education. She lives her life the way she was taught as a child and embraces the teachings of her relatives. Maggie is the younger daughter of Mama, and shares many of the same values and ideas as her mother. She is shy and timid and has lived somewhat of a sheltered life with little influence from the outside world. The eldest daughter Dee has neither accepted nor embraced the life she was raised in. The disdain she feels for this lifestyle and her desire for more has carried her to a life of higher education while leaving her family’s old ways of thinking behind. In the story, the main conflict occurs over a pair of quilts that are of great sentimental value to Mama and Maggie, while representing the African American struggle to Dee. Walker conveys through the narration of Mama that she believes embracing one’s African heritage does not mean one should reject their own American heritage. Therefore, Mama’s decision to give the quilts to Maggie indicates the author’s agreement with her decision and perspective.

Throughout the story Maggie demonstrates a vast knowledge and understanding of her family’s heritage. She embraces the teachings that have been passed down from generations of women in her family, and honors them by carrying on these traditions. Maggie has never lived an easy or gifted life, and has few possessions that have great sentimental value. To Maggie, the quilts are a symbol of her family’s heritage and are important aspects that helped in shaping the person she has become. As Dee searches Mama’s room for the quilts, Maggie hangs back in the kitchen. Dee asks Mama if she can take the quilts and before she can answer, Mama hears a noise, “I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door slammed” (815). When Dee asks her mother if she can take the quilts home with her, Maggie is distraught.